


Reasons For Laughter

by Sheeana



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, F/M, Families of Choice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-19
Updated: 2013-02-19
Packaged: 2017-11-29 21:23:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/691589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheeana/pseuds/Sheeana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a stormy summer night, Katniss can't get Peeta to come inside.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Reasons For Laughter

**Author's Note:**

  * For [failsafe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/failsafe/gifts).



"Peeta," Katniss pleads, but it's hopeless; it's been hopeless since the beginning. He's lost. He's gone somewhere she can't follow. Her hair is wet, soaked through like she's gone swimming or taken a hot shower in one of the Capitol bathrooms. Her clothing is clinging to her skin. Every breath is a hot and humid struggle for air. She feels like she might be drowning, but she can't go inside until Peeta comes in with her. 

A distant rumbling reminds her that she needs him to come inside for the sake of more than just her own sanity. He leans back against the wet wood on the side of the house and he breathes; his chest moves visibly as he inhales the hot, humid air.

"I don't want to hurt you," he's saying under his breath, so she can barely hear it through the downpour.

"You won't. It was an accident. Please, Peeta. It's raining." Katniss is holding out her hand for him to take, but he can't, or he won't. She's never been able to figure out the difference between the two.

"You're bleeding," says Peeta, his eyes fixed on the dark spot on Katniss's palm where the rain is mingling with blood, diluting it and rinsing her skin clean. She's been hurt a lot worse. He's seen her hurt a lot worse. He's even been the one who hurt her a lot worse.

"Only a little," she says.

"I hurt you."

"You _tripped_."

"You hate me. You want me dead." Even Peeta seems to know that this is ridiculous and it can't be true. He frowns as he says it, his mouth twitching at the corner where Katniss likes to kiss when he's in a better mood.

"Not real."

"I don't remember what's real," he says. He tilts his head back to feel the rain on his skin. His mouth opens and his tongue sticks out, tasting the water. Whatever it tastes like, he seems to enjoy it; he smiles. It's not happiness or humor, but it doesn't have the touch of insanity Katniss has learned to recognize, either. A sudden creaking sound has Katniss on alert, grasping for her absent bow. She used to sleep with it beside her at night and string it over her shoulder whenever she left the house, but she forgets sometimes now. It's been a long time since anyone tried to take anything from her.

"You kids having fun out here?" shouts Haymitch from the doorway. The sound seems to startle Peeta from his rain-induced reverie. His neck straightens and his eyes focus. They become sharp again and regain the clever glint that scared Katniss, once, a long time ago, when he was just an unlucky boy whose name had been read from a slip of paper.

"Come inside?" she says, holding out her hand again. This time, he takes it. This time, he lets her lead him back onto the porch and into their house that used to be her house. He lets her take him into the bathroom and slowly peel off his clothes, and he lets her pat a soft towel against his skin until he shivers and seems to finally come back to himself fully. She lets him kiss her shoulder and hold her waist, since doing that seems to bring him some sense of steadiness and safety. He's taught her a lot about safety, and she's taught him a lot about self-reliance. She doesn't resent his presence anymore. They rely on each other.

Later, something occurs to Peeta as they hang their wet clothes over the railing. 

"Why are you even here?" he asks Haymitch, narrowing his eyes.

"I thought I heard you say something before about baking a pie," Haymitch prompts, and Katniss stops fighting the smile tugging at her lips.

"Right," Peeta says, almost a grumble. Irritation is an emotion for children, Katniss thinks, and people who live in warm houses with safe families and enough food for everyone. It's not an emotion for someone who's still living on the inside of an arena or a cell in the Capitol.

Sometimes, lately, in the late evenings, she can find reasons for laughter.

 

* * *

 

 


End file.
